Speaking at the Annual International Conference of the German Anthropological Association (GAA)

Friederike Pank will be speaking on “Subjectivities of depopulation: Navigating the pressures of an eroded social order” at the GAA’s Annual International Conference in Munich. When depopulation unsettles familiar social structures, navigating social life can become disorienting. Social alliances no longer function as they used to, and efforts to sustain ‘normal life’ often end in frustration due to a lack of resonance and recognition. How do subjects make sense of their social position when familiar reference points vanish? What kind of labour does community engagement become when agents feel increasingly out of tune with their environment? Her presentation forms part of the panel Depopulated Epistemologies: Creative Action, Demographic Change and Social Reproduction which reflects on the social and cultural effects of depopulation and changing emic conceptions of history, identity, possibility and continuity.